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  BioWare is Making a New Ultima RPG. I’m Serious.

  Not content with digging up the corpse of classic RPG series Ultima once, EA – who now hold the rights to the franchise – are doing it all over again. The publisher has tonight announced Ultima Forever, a cross-platform, free-to-play RPG that’s being developed by BioWare and which will be published under EA’s Play 4…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  FarmVille Guys Publishing a Serious, Hardcore Game, With Swords and Monsters and Stuff

  If I say the word “Zynga” to you, you probably think stories of shoddy work practices, of ruthless non-games like FarmVille, or allegations that they essentially rip other people’s games off So it’s understandable that the social games juggernaut is looking to broaden its horizons a little, and move into more serious territory. That’s why…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  When X-Com Meets Star Trek, Wonderful Things Happen

  Star Command has long been my most-anticipated iOS game. It may now also be one of my most-anticipated PC games, especially since this planned bigger edition will feature more content. Get past the corny intro and there’s a ton of gameplay footage to sift through. STAR COMMAND: Kickstart Part 2 – The PC/Mac Space Adventure…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  A Beautiful Mech Commemorates the Greatest Robot Movie of All Time

  If you haven’t seen 1990’s Robot Jox, well, stop reading. Go get a copy. Because it’s just about the best thing ever. A combination of Cold War politics and stop-motion giant mech combat, it told the story of a future in which international disputes were settled not with wars, but with gladiatorial battles between…giant mechs.…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
• Culture

  Luscious Game Art Makes Robots and Beasts Look Great Together

  Markus Neidel is a German concept artist who most recently worked on Black Prophecy, a sci-fi MMO. You won’t find too much sci-fi in this gallery, though. What you will find for the most part are some epic fantasy images that look so delicious you’d be forgiven for thinking you could slice them off your…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  A Wonderful Interview With a Disabled Japanese Gamer Flown Out to the World’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament

  In one of the most touching stories of the year, the fighting game readers of community website Shoryuken banded together to help disabled Japanese gamer Osamu Ichikawa get to this year’s EVO tournament in Las Vegas. Ichikawa, who suffers from cerebral palsy, only just got to play Street Fighter in an arcade for the first…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  Become an Aperture Test Subject With Your Very Own Portal Jumpsuit

  Toy company NECA, who recently released an official replica Portal gun, is letting people kick their Aperture fantasies up a notch with an entire licensed outfit Going on sale soon will be a pair of long socks fashioned to look like the game’s Long Fall Boots and, for those who really like to get in…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
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  What Kind of Man Sells Over $1,000,000 Worth of Rare Video Games? This Kind of Man.

  A few days ago, an eBay auction offering thousands of video games was listed at over $1.2 million. An obscene figure, but when you consider it included the complete catalogues of every game released on the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Virtual Boy, Master System, Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast (just to name a few), it seemed…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 12, 2012
• CultureTotal Recall

  That Game Where “Hulk Hogan’s” Chest Nearly Exploded

  Wrestle War is a Japanese wrestling game that was released in arcades in 1989 (and on Japanese and PAL Mega Drives a couple of years later). Despite not carrying a single official license, it decided to rip off a number of high-profile wrestlers of the time, like Hulk Hogan (who was awesomely renamed “Titan Morgan”)…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2012
• CultureTotal Recall

  A History of Video Game Movies That Haven’t Been Made (And Probably Won’t)

  As video game fans, it’s easy to get excited about movie adaptation news because, as video game fans, you expect this means the movie will one day actually get made. It doesn’t. That might be how video games work, but it’s certainly not how Hollywood works. This week has seen three big announcements in the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published July 11, 2012
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  The Calvinball Theory of Building a Mythological World

  Hi Kotaku, and welcome to the evening Off Topic post. You know Calvinball, right? It’s the game that Calvin and his tiger Hobbes would play in Bill Waterson’s genius comic Calvin and Hobbes. The whole point of Calvinball was that there are no rules other than the ones that have been made up in the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published July 11, 2012
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  Need For Speed Flick Gets a Hot Date

  They’re already talking about February 2014 as the release window for Need For Speed the movie, which tells you everything you need to know about this venture, even 18 months away. Movies released in late winter, specifically February, are fucking terrible. Critics expect them to be fucking terrible. Their makers expect them to be fucking…

  By Owen Good Published July 11, 2012
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  How The Internet Deals With EA

  I really enjoyed these comics, published today by the hilarious folks over at Dorkly. No matter how you feel about video game publisher Electronic Arts these days, hopefully you can appreciate the ribbing. Enjoy: Head over to Dorkly for the rest! The Internet’s Guide to Dealing With EA [Dorkly]

  By Jason Schreier Published July 11, 2012
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  Cyborg And Nightwing Join The Cast Of Injustice

  The latest two additions to NeatherRealm’s upcoming Justice League fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us will be Cyborg and Nightwing. Kotaku‘s Evan Narcisse is on the show floor at San Diego Comic-Con, where he chatted with NeatherRealm’s Ed Boon. Evan will have more more info on Injustice soon.

  By Kirk Hamilton Published July 11, 2012
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  Watch The Mental Meltdown Of A Leaderboard-Beating Dyad Run

  Dyad is the kind of game that’s tough to talk about—you kinda have to play it to get it. That said, watching a level play out gives a decent sense of the whole disorienting, often exhilarating experience. Here, Chris Person blasts through one of the early levels and puts on a pretty impressive show, earning…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published July 11, 2012
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  Who Needs a Dragon Shout When You Have a Rapping Bard?

  There’s nothing quite like a bard in a tavern, strumming his medieval proto-guitar of choice (here a mandolin, there a lute, sometimes a harp) and humming dulcet tones. Then there’s this bard. He’s a little more 21st century than those other minstrels and troubadours. As he says: “You see, I bear some rare amazing information…

  By Kate Cox Published July 11, 2012
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  More Superheroes Need Arkham City‘s Superpowered Fist-Fighting

  Today, we’ve seen a rumor flying around that Rocksteady’s next Batman game will be a Silver Age-era game about the first time Batman met Joker. Variety notes that this period is when Batman formed the Justice League of America along with Superman and a bunch of other famous DC superheroes. Which of course, raises the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published July 11, 2012
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  Midweek Moneysaver: The Old College Try

  This Wednesday edition of Kotaku’s The Moneysaver catches all the offers, promotions and bargains that can’t wait until the weekend. The Midweek Moneysaver is brought to you by Dealzon. Software • NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3) is $44.99, free ship from Amazon. Next best is $52. [Dealzon] • Aug. 28 release Madden NFL 13 (360,…

  Dealzon Published July 11, 2012
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  One Console To Rule Them All

  In today’s slightly late (sorry!) edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Gusi A. Rincon puts forth the argument for a unified console. Forget the console wars! If the big console makers would all just declare peace, everyone would benefit. Right now the best that could happen to the Game industry (just hypothetically speaking) would…

  Featuring Gusi A. Rincon Published July 11, 2012
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  The Kama Sutra PlayStation Game Pitch Sony Turned Down

  Game publishers get all manner of weird game pitches. Sometimes, one man’s weird pitch is another man’s potential goldmine… especially when sexual positions are involved. In an interview over at Eurogamer, Sony producer Pete Smith talked about a pitch the company once got for a game for the PlayStation 2’s EyeToy camera based on the…

  By Kirk Hamilton Published July 11, 2012